So, though we haven’t made a huge deal of it, Screencrave will be turning out the lights. Maybe for a while, maybe permanently (we should have some Comic-con coverage coming next month). Which means my eight-year tenure (including my time at Chud) of writing about box office is coming to an end. And I have some thoughts about that.

The biggest thing that’s changed in the last ten years is the size of a franchise openings. Twenty six films have done more than $100 Million in their three day, with twenty one of those in the last eight years. This was a phenomenon that hadn’t happened before 2002, so this is a phenomenon that is basically a decade old. One of those crossed the two hundred million dollar mark (The Avengers) , but for many of these a three to one opening weekend to total is the way of the world (some come closer to only doing twice their opening).

What we’ve seen this summer are films that open in the ninety million range that can barely make it over $200 Million. And where a decade ago studios could count on home video to deliver untold fortunes (literally untold, they don’t like revealing those numbers), now they don’t have that cushion. The industry is hurting, and so you have films that are hyped and do well in their opening weekends and go away.

What it also means is that they’re mostly chasing the familiar. Which gets you Sony setting up four additional Spider-Manfilms and Warner Brother’s aggressive DC slate (even if they’re not making nine movies over the next four or five years, they are definitely on their way to Justice League) and a new Star Warstrilogy and countless spin-off movies.

What they seem to be ignoring, and probably at their own peril, is the successes of films like Gravityand Frozen, which beat this standard operating procedure by playing long and to audiences who are hungry for this sort of material.The problem is that there you have nothing to fall back on. You don’t have brand awareness, and the star system doesn’t currently guarantee an opening, so no cast member makes sure you’ll do all that well internationally. It’s easy to understand why they don’t want to give sixty to two hundred million dollars to a film that could fall on its face and may also not lead to a sequel.

If Hollywood wants to do better — at least stateside — their biggest objective should be helping make American stronger economically. The best way to get more people in theaters is having people with more expendable income. If theaters tickets can cost upwards of twenty dollars and a family outing can run over a hundred dollars, they would be better served by trying to get the nation to raise the minimum wage, and make more movies in America. But that’s a macro view.

The route for independent films is also getting perilous — it would make sense for the studios to operate with some loss leader sensibilities in regards to middle budget films as we’re getting franchise films directed by filmmakers with limited experience. It would have been inconceivable for someone like Colin Trevorrow to direct Jurassic Worldten or fifteen years ago, but when studios don’t make films like Insomnia, there’s no room to prove you’ve got the goods before you’re thrust onto the franchise throne. There are only so many people who’ve directed hundred million dollar movies, and there’s so few opportunities for middle budget films that you see talented people and filmmakers who haven’t really proved themselves launched into these larger movies, which often — but doesn’t necessarily — mean that the filmmaker is less likely to have authorial control over the material. If the set pieces have been pre-viz’d, and their input is more in the margins, producers are more likely to have a larger imprint, which also leads to the Marvel model. That’s to get directors to do more coverage, to get TV directors, and then the producers have more power in the editing bay. There aren’t as many tracking shots and extended takes in the current universe of the blockbuster.

And though VOD seems to be working somewhat, it — like the death of 35mm — is leading to more people staying home, and/or waiting for Netflix. But it’s harder and harder for an indie film to crack big. The Grand Budapest Hotelwas considered a success because it did more business than Wes Anderson’s most successful film, and if you’re outgrossing a film you made thirteen years ago by a couple million, it’s just hard. On top of which there aren’t as many opportunities for lower budget movies because it’s that much harder to get financing since studios aren’t as likely to pick up these smaller films.

There is hope, there is hope every year when films like The Wolf of Wall Streetand Frozenshow that people don’t just want junk food, but this summer has been pretty depressing so far as a certain audience Pavlovianly goes opening weekend to the latest big whatever. It would be telling if Transformers 4 opens to over a hundred million but can’t crack $300 Million domestic. But there is a sense that working for Marvel and helming a hundred million dollar tentpole doesn’t lead to the standard “one for them, one for you” formula. At least you’re not going to get that deal from a studio that simply makes comic book movies. But it’s those payoff movies that make the cinema worth going to.

Still, the last news story I wrote for the site was about Rian Johnson directing a new Star Warsmovie, and I’m excited for that beyond measure. So there are ways to even make a franchise that seems like a cash register for its studios exciting. There is good and there is bad. Which is, to quote one of the greatest songs of all time, the same as it ever was.

Rian Johnson, director of Brick, The Brothers Bloomand Looper, is your Star Wars:Episode VIIIdirector. Currently there are conflicting reports about his involvement in the final film in the new trilogy, but he will at least be involved to write a treatment for Episode IX.

And our response to this is that it’s expletive-worthy good news. Johnson is batting three for three, and in some ways better this than a superhero movie. If he was to continue his independence he was going to have to take on something from a franchise, and if he gets to steer the ship then, well, more power to him. Whether he’ll get to bring on collaborators like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Noah Segan and composer Nathan Johnson is unknown, but possible.

Reports are early, so his involvement with the ninth film may be that he has first right of refusal, but his scripting flies in the face of original reports which suggested that Simon Kinberg and Lawrence Kasdan were writing the follow ups to J.J. Abrams‘ Star Wars: Episode VII. But this also ties into the fact that original screenwriter Michael Arndt’s work was scrapped, and it’s possible that Johnson has a much better idea for the middle chapter. Since The Empire Strikes Backnot only wrote the template for the middle chapter of a trilogy that goes darker and expands character, and is also considered one of the greatest films of all time, this is a pretty mighty task. Strangely enough, if any man gives us confidence of the job they’ll do, it’s Johnson.

It’s unknown if Disney will stick to Winter release dates, but this is likely to hit theaters either in May or December of 2017.

Do you know this face? Has our culture been so divided up into niches (or, that is to say, segregated) that there are people who don’t know who Kevin Hart is? Because you’re looking at the face of the biggest modern movie star in the game.

Currently Hart has only starred in one movie that made over a hundred million dollars (Ride Along), but his recent run, which includes his super successful (in terms of return on investment) concert films — that often don’t get reviewed by critics — and such entries as Think Like a Manand this year’s About Last Nightremake, shows a powerhouse. Perhaps he could be marginalized like Tyler Perry, but there’s no denying that he’s opened three films to the top slot this year. That’s a feat likely unparalleled.

On the flip side is Jersey Boys, a film that Warner Brothers seemed actively embarrassed of, or perhaps knew that the target demo just needed to know it was out there. Did they get that message out? We shall see this weekend, but the answer seems to be: No.

22 Jump Streetis likely to hold okay, and perhaps How to Train Your Dragon 2has a marginal drop. It depends, word of mouth seems to be working against it.

So, this week I released a list of the hundred greatest movies of all time. Yeah, that’s pretentious, but listmaking is good to get people curious about cinema. But it hurt to leave so many great films off the list, and some you leave off because if they’re not in the top whatever, it doesn’t make sense to make them number seventy two. So I asked myself: Can I come up with an alternate top hundred films? The answer: Yes.

Though I won’t provide commentary this time, there’s always a sense of a list snapping into place. It starts with more personal favorites, and then moves on to greater and greater films. Even with the freedom of doing a second list, and even if this seems a little more didactic, I have just given you, the reader, two hundred films that I think are masterpieces, and I didn’t even bring in Ghostbustersor Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Star Wars(the first one), or The Road Warrior, TheWizard of Oz and many other films that feel like (to be crude about it) easy lays. And even on this second go-around, I feel pain at some of the films I’ve left of the list. I didn’t include any Tsai Ming-liang, and that dude’s a master. No Hou Hsiao-hsien. And probably not enough Eisenstein. Or the many other films I’ve forgotten to mention. But I can defend every single choice on this list.

]]>http://screencrave.com/2014-06-19/damon-houxs-alternate-top-films-time/feed/0'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' Final Trailer: War is Cominghttp://screencrave.com/2014-06-19/dawn-planet-apes-final-trailer-war-coming/
http://screencrave.com/2014-06-19/dawn-planet-apes-final-trailer-war-coming/#commentsThu, 19 Jun 2014 09:15:42 +0000Damon Houxhttp://screencrave.com/?p=187578

The latest and final trailer for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes promises all out war. With humans worn out and seeing the simians as their enemy, with the world completely destroyed by a flu, tempers are high and things are going to get ugly.

As a huge fan of this series, which has only produced one bum movie in continuity (which is to say that Tim Burton‘s remake is completely ignored), there’s a lot riding on this film — especially considering this summer has been relatively weak so far. With Matt Reeves directing, and with Jason Clarke leading the humans and Andy Serkis leading the apes, this is one of the promising films of the next few weeks. Here’s that trailer:

Fox has already suggested there will be a next entry, though it’s hard to say if this film will end on a cliffhanger-esque note that sets up the next one. Currently the events seem stuck on the West coast, so it will be interesting to see if this film tries to suggest a nuclear apocalypse (something suggested by the original Planet of the Apes), though we’re guessing as the franchise moves on it will try to explain how the Statue of Liberty became completely wrecked, and New York turned into a desert region. Dawn of the Planet of the Apeshits theaters July 11.

Movies! Now more than ever! Paramount has started to date their 2016 release calendar, and besides the films that are already in production or have been announced, they’re now saying that yes, we’ll be getting a fifth Transformers film in two years’ time.

So Paramount has already announced that 2015 will offer the SpongeBob SquarePantssequel Sponge out of Water (due February 6), Terminator: Genesis (due July 1), a new Friday the 13th (due November 13), and Mission: Impossible 5 (due December 25), with Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and The Gambleralso plotted to come out that year. 2016 will offer Ben-Hur (as directed by Timur Bekmambetov) on February 26, Beverly Hills Cop 4 on March 25, with Transformers 5, G.I. Joe 3, Hansel and Gretel: With Hunters 2 and Star Trek 3 all scheduled to be released that year at some point.

The big news of this is Transformers 5because director Michael Bay and company haven’t announced directly that they’re coming back for a fifth film, though star Mark Wahlberg has been saying “maybe” a lot lately and the word was that Transformers 4 was the start of a new trilogy. This either means that the writers have already devised a new story, or that Paramount is being a little aggressive. It would also likely mean that shooting would commence by April of next year. But who needs a script or good story? The other titles have all been rumored or are in active development, so it’s no surprise, and Paramount (who were speaking at CineEurope according to The Hollywood Reporter) were bound to play up their sequels. Still…. now more than ever.

Look, I’m the sort of person who has been checking the box office daily for a couple weeks now. And it’s for one reason: I want to see if and when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 crosses the $200 Million mark (it hasn’t yet, and is limping to get there). Sony is locked into a franchise the public has been slowly rejecting, and yet they haven’t publicly changed their plans for the franchise, even if the word is they’ve bumped the next sequel a year. Which is why I’m curious about Universal’s decision to bump the next Bournemovie a year.

The film, which is to be directed by Justin Lin and will at least star Jeremy Renner, went from August 14, 2015 to July 15, 2016. In some ways that’s a bold move. A mid-August release means you’re hoping to fight less competition during the summer and hope to play long. A July release means you’re going to likely be opening against or near the biggest films of the year. In its 2015 place, Universal has slated the N.W.A. bio-pic.

The reason why I brought up Spider-Man is because The Bourne Legacy, the fourth film that replaced Matt Damon with Renner, was in all ways a disappointment. It is the lowest grossing Bournefilm by ten million (or fifty is you include inflation) domestically, though the fourth film picked up a little internationally as it’s the third highest grossing of the franchise worldwide, but well over $150 Million off The Bourne Ultimatum. To pursue a fifth film without Matt Damon seems stupid considering the laws of diminishing returns, and it would make sense if the delay was to guarantee Damon’s involvement. But that hasn’t been announced yet.

]]>http://screencrave.com/2014-06-18/the-bourne-call-bumps-2016/feed/0Damon Houx's Top 100 Films of All Time (Part 2 of 2)http://screencrave.com/2014-06-17/damon-houxs-top-100-films-time-part-2-2/
http://screencrave.com/2014-06-17/damon-houxs-top-100-films-time-part-2-2/#commentsWed, 18 Jun 2014 05:01:01 +0000Damon Houxhttp://screencrave.com/?p=187566Writing lists, the actual act of ranking films, is absurd. For most of us who aren’t OCD, there’s really no way to rank one film above another. That said, yesterday I ranked my bottom fifty or so best films out of a hundred. So let’s finish this list out like a boss, yeah?

49 Five Easy Pieces

Bob Raeflson nailed this portrait of a genius who has given up but can’t quite let go. A man with father issues, he’s the man who can’t help but lose. Jack Nicholson gives an all timer here.

48 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

There is no better film about how relationships fall apart and how we have our petty jealousies but that we hope we can still fit together than this film. Well, maybe there’s another one or two on this list, but still, when you put Michel Gondry together Charlie Kaufman you get screen magic.

47 Singin’ in the Rain

Not only a great history lesson about the evolution of cinema (even if it creates a myth as much as it tells the truth), it’s simply one of the great musicals of all time. Gene Kelly dancing in the rain is one of the purest expressions of joy to be found.

46 Breathless

First time filmmakers often have a f- you contempt for what’s come before, but how Jean-Luc Godard breaks the rules and obeys genre conceits with panache makes this the greatest (and sexiest) senior thesis of all time.

45 Pulp Fiction

This makes for a good double feature with the last film. Though I could have gone with the indelible Inglourious Basterds, simply for its zeitgeist status Pulp Fiction trumps — if only because pork chops taste good.

44 Only Angels Have Wings

Howard Hawks, as I’ve said, is one of the greatest directors of all time, and this is the purest example of his love of showing people working. Of People who are good at their jobs, and know the risks. Who’s Joe?

43 The Big Red One/ Come and See

There are basically two filmmakers who ever went to war as grunts in America and became directors. Sam Fuller and Oliver Stone. What makes The Big Red One a great movie (especially in the director’s cut) is that everything in it is something that happened. On the flip side is Come and See which shows the truth from another side, a side that was beaten even when it was victorious. I don’t want to sound flippant because I’m not, Come and See is one of the most haunting and powerful war films ever made. Together they show the horror and power of war.

42 Manhattan

If the late Gordon Willis shooting black and white anamorphic widescreen wasn’t enough to make this an all-timer, it’s also Woody Allen wrestling with himself and what is of value in the world. Some may see his turn Tracy as a triumph, for me it’s about a middle age man realizing that a seventeen year old girl might be smarter than him. Also Gershwin.

41 La Dolce Vita

If I am to pick one Fellini, it’s the one I relate to most (though I Vitelloni makes this a hard choice, as does that one about the director). The scene grows old, and not everyone is who you think they are, both famous and not. It’s hard to connect as a human being, and the nightlife goes on forever.

40 Citizen Kane

It would be too easy to put this Orson Welles film at the top of my list, but there’s no denying this is perfect and like so many great films, causally hilarious. It’s also playful, but its status as THE BEST has worked against both the film and Welles. It’s still great, though.

39 Straw Dogs

As we’ve seen recently, pop culture, and even the intelligentsia often wants art to hold their hand. Wants it to make the viewer feel smart without actually challenging them. Racism is bad. Rape is bad. Brute force is bad. But great art often puts your face in the crap for purpose. And there’s nothing wrong or bad about looking into the abyss, even if we don’t like what we see. Sam Peckinpah, with this film, wants to make the audience uncomfortable. He wants the audience to have conflicted feelings about rights of masculinity, and to push buttons. How much pleasure that’s derived from that draws into questions the purpose of art.

38 The Adventures of Robin Hood

And to about face on that, Hollywood was often a pleasure dispenser, and few films deliver that as well as Michael Curtiz’s Robin Hood. I could have just as easily included Casablanca in this spot, but the spirit of high adventure and the perfect casting makes this the ultimate great film made by good artists.

37 The King of Comedy

There are few films I’ve seen on this list as infrequently as The King of Comedy, but that’s also why it deserves its place here. Martin Scorsese takes many ideas that he had been playing with and takes them to a whole new level with Robert De Niro’s Rupert Pupkin. Like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, this is one of the most insightful films about celebrity and fandom.

36 Jackie Brown

Post-Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino made his best film while people were too ready to pre-judge a sophomore slump. Instead he made his deepest and most realized film about people. Didn’t he blow you mind this time?

35 Miller’s Crossing

There aren’t too many directors who got two films into my top one hundred, but the Coen Brothers deserve it. This slot could just as easily go to Blood Simple, Fargo, Barton Fink, Burn After Reading or Raising Arizona, but this was the film that made me fall in love with the duo, and their love of language. “Take your flunky and dangle” is just a taste of the film’s elegant construction.

34 Memento

As someone who love films that play with structure, no film has done a better job of messing with an audience that Christopher Nolan’s breakthrough effort. And no film has done a better job of creating an earthquake under an audience’s seat. Alternate: The Prestige, which is a great film and easily Nolan’s most underrated.

33 Barry Lyndon

Look, 2001, Paths of Glory, The Killing and Eyes Wide Shut are all great films. That said, if you want to know the best Kubrick film of all time, it’s Barry Lyndon.

32 The Conformist

What is the best shot film of all time? Acceptable answer: This. Also, it’s a great story about a coward in the midst of war told with the visual gusto of a director (in this case Bernardo Bertolucci) at the height of his powers. Though I could have just as easily put Last Tango in Paris here.

31 Contempt

By the time Jean Luc-Godard made this film, his relationship with Anna Karina was ending and so he made the greatest film about both hating your ex-partner and hating yourself and selling out. On top of which it’s gorgeous, and widescreen and Bridgette Bardot gives her finest performance and Jack Palance and also everything else about it.

30 To Be or Not To Be

Ernst Lubitsch, known for his elegant sexual touch, was mad as hell at the Nazis. And so he made a film that was as elegantly constructed as his best work, but wanted to grab Hitler by his package and squeeze and twist. In doing so, he made an angry comic masterpiece.

29 Annie Hall

It’s one thing to make the one of great films about relationships, it’s another thing to do it while breaking every rule of cinema, and having a blast while kicking at conventions. Regardless of how you may or may not feel about Woody Allen the person, this move is alive in ways that are only comparable to new waves. This is revolution.

28 The Long Goodbye

I was torn between putting this film or Nashville in this spot, but I went with the noir, perhaps because I love Elliot Gould’s performance in this film so much, and because the coke bottle scene — which has been stolen repeatedly — has never been topped.

27 Blue Velvet

David Lynch is a master of form and this film, which walks the line between parody and melodrama, is one of cinema’s great Bildungsroman because it tackles our complicated relationships with sex and how sex makes people adults and how that creates fetishes and the good and bad of that. On top of having an avant-garde filmmaker working at the height of his powers.

26 The Right Stuff

Perhaps the greatest portrait of the America I love (though it’s definitely a warts and all presentation) it also showcases that history is made by humans. On top of which it’s epic and hilarious, with one of the greatest ensemble casts ever assembled.

25 Happy Together

Wow, I struggled between picking this and In the Mood For Love, which may be the better film, but this is my list, so I’ll go with the Wong Kar-Wai that first made me fall in love with the master director. This story of a couple who loves but can’t live with each other is a heartbreaking portrait of how relationships can both work and not work at the same time. Also, the music. Astor Piazzolla. Frank Zappa, so much greatness.

24 Grand Illusion/The Great Escape

Jean Renoir is the best director to ever touch a camera, and it’s partly because he is such a humanist that he even has sympathy for the Germans. This portrait of gentlemen in war is perhaps overly sentimental, but it’s deeply felt and deft. It’s also a prison break-out film, which is why I’m tying it with one of my favorite ensemble efforts. I could and have watched The Great Escape on more weekends than I care to count.

23 Army of Shadows

And if Grand Illusion and The Great Escape are too nice and too fun for you, then Jean Pierre Melville’s greatest triumph is the flip side. Following the French resistance, there is a job to be done, one that costs lives and one that sends most to their graves in pursuit of liberty. Listmaking makes me sad to leave off Melville’s other great films like The Red Circleand Le Samourai.

22 The Purple Rose of Cairo

Woody Allen is one of two director to get three films on my list, but there’s a case to be made for many more. But the film of his I love most is Purple Rose because it’s about fantasy versus reality, it’s both one of the greatest and most damning portraits of the power of escapism. Is the ending happy or sad? Either way, it’s a powerhouse.

21 Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee’s revolutionary third film was explosive at the time, and now – some twenty five years later – it’s sad that it didn’t provoke a stronger cinematic dialogue. Regardless, Spike Lee dealt with race relations in a way few attempted before or since. On top of making a sexy, provocative, relateable, hilarious film that culminates in a number of tragedies.

20 Sunrise

F.W. Murnau died too young, but this American made silent film showcases why visual poetry is what can make a movie great. This is visual storytelling in the most powerful and emotive way, but is also so simple in its presentation of a marriage going through a bad patch that might not be salvageable.

19 The Godfather I and II

Francis Ford Coppola’s two Godfather films are just great storytelling. Cinema is pulp and the first film is brilliantly executed at that, material which is deepened by the second volume that shows how much power can corrupt. I really shouldn’t have to convince anyone these are great movies, though, right?

18 Marnie

Alfred Hitchcock’s much maligned Marnie takes Freudian ideas and uses them in distinctly cinematic ways. This film is the heart of Hitchcock (as Robin Wood has always said) as it finally gives a reason for Alfred’s ice princess blondes to act as they do.

17 Blow Out

Which I’m putting right next to Brian De Palma’s Blow Out for a reason. The oft-mocked ‘cock disciple understood the power of tragedy and melodrama and mystery, and this film showcases the director using visual storytelling to create one of the best thrillers in cinema. It’s also amazing how De Palma can create one of the greatest sneak attack endings of all time. That’s hiding in plain sight. That said, I’m sad to leave off Femme Fatale, Body Double, The Fury, Phantom of the Paradiseand more from this list.

16 Trouble in Paradise

Romantic comedies are often garbage narratives about people the poster tell you will be together by the end. Rarely are they about the carnal pleasure and attraction in the way Ernst Lubitsch told it eighty some years ago. The elegance of this film is unparalleled, but then so was Lubitsch. This is a movie about f-cking. It’s about wanting to f-ck, it’s about how much fun it is to be wanted, and how much fun it is to circle and about sets ups and payoffs that you didn’t know were being set up.

15 The Passion of Joan of Arc

Falconetti has long been shorthand for great central performances because of the work of Renée Jeanne Falconetti as Joan of Arc in this film. Asked to deny her beliefs, asked to deny that she heard the voice of God, Joan’s faith is so strong she would rather die than betray it, and the cumulative power of this movie is such that it’s impossible to deny. Though I could just as easily put a handful of Carl Dreyer films here because he was a master.

14 Faces

John Cassavetes is one of the great gods of cinema in that he can film something that feels alive in ways that few other filmmakers can (even if the events are much more plotted and scripted than his reputation might suggest). This portrait of love and loneliness feels so lived in and so revolutionary that it’s both surprising and not that it inspired numerous attempts to recreate that magic that most failed miserably.

13 McCabe and Mrs. Miller

Robert Altman’s “western” took a familiar narrative of the end of the west and turned it into one of his greatest accomplishments. With an impeccable cast that includes Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, the ending of this film is still one of the most bleak and powerful put to screen. This is violence that’s about pain and death, not excitement.

12 Taxi Driver

God’s lonely man Travis Bickle is one of the greatest antiheroes, a man who helps create his own alienation, a powder keg primed to blow. Sadly, the film’s portrait of an alienated loser seems more relevant than ever. The film might not be watchable if Martin Scorsese’s visual sense didn’t make every scene electric.

11 Seven Samurai/Laurence of Arabia

I swear this is my last bit of cheating, but it’s hard to do this, and really who’s going to play police here? These feels like the shortest epics ever made. Both paint on a large canvas but also are great in how they lay out their stories. The former is the master of construction as it pulls back the bow in the first two hours and change as it sets up its warriors and then lets them fly into combat, the latter is the reason why people like me revere the widescreen frame.

10 Jaws

I could talk about how this really isn’t the template for summer action movies to follow, or the character work, or the direction, but I saw this film when I was eight and it was the movie that made me love movies. And for a good reason. It’s a masterpiece.

9 The Earrings of Madame De…

Max Ophuls moved a camera better than anyone. Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino swear by him, and it’s a film like this that cements his reputation as the master. The Reckless Moment and Caught also deserve to be mentioned here.

8 Vertigo

Destructive obsession at its most cinematic. Few moments are so perfect as the final confrontation, while Hitchcock shows everyone that suspense is more powerful than surprise. Also it’s a contender for the greatest score ever. Alas, picking three Hitchcock meant leaving off The Birds, Rear Window, The 39 Steps, and so many more.

7 The Wild Bunch

Many westerns were about the end of the west, but few people could end it as spectacularly as Sam Peckinpah. Mixing the new rating system with a sense of outrage at what was going on in Vietnam, this story of antiheroes who just want to go out on their own terms (to enter their house justified, as it were) not only features some of the most breathtaking editing of all time, it is fantastically entertaining to boot. But if you’re tired of this film his Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is equally brilliant.

6 Swing Time

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing together is why cinema exists, and though there’s a case to be made for Top Hat and more, this is my favorite of their films. That said, my favorite number in this is when Astaire dances with his shadow. The skill….

5 Touch of Evil

Orson Welles is one of the great geniuses of cinema, though it might be hard to tell that from his movies, most of which were either made with no money or were cut to shreds by the studios post-Kane. The restoration of Touch of Evil gives Welles his best on screen role, while also showing why he was one of the most inventive of directors. He could throw every trick at the screen but it never felt like a man whipping out his junk because he does it for purpose, and the film’s story of the downfall of a terrible but not unredeemable man is always gutting for me.

4 Chinatown

Speaking of misunderstood geniuses…. This is a perfect film noir, has one of the greatest endings of all time, brilliant performances and is one of the great poison pen letters to California. Like so much of this list, this is as close as anyone’s come to making a perfect movie in how it has so much to say, both about the time it was made and the time it was commenting on.

3 Duck Soup

The sublime anarchy of the Marx Brothers in this movie makes this the greatest comedy of all time:

Secretary of War: How about taking up the tax?

Rufus T. Firefly: How ’bout taking up the carpet?

Secretary of War: I still insist we must take up the tax.

Rufus T. Firefly: He’s right, you’ve gotta take up the tacks before you can take up the carpet.

2 Rio Bravo

The ultimate hang out movie, Howard Hawks opens the film with a three minute sequence with no dialogue and yet you never feel like he’s making a show of it. It’s because all acts are done with purpose in what might be the most rewatchable film ever made “took you two!” Howard Hawks even makes a musical number seem like the most natural thing in the world, on top of giving John Wayne his sexiest role. That’s how you know this is a master work: Hawks makes John Wayne sexy.

1 Rules of the Game

With France on the verge of war, Jean Renoir made a supposed bedroom farce that was actually about the world and power and privilege and the human condition. The film is famous for the quote “Everyone has their reasons.” And that’s the philosophy of all great cinema. It’s the philosophy of Jean Renoir, and it’s the reason why he can twist the knife when he needs to. Seventy years later – for those who are paying attention – this film is alive and dangerous.

A while back it was rumored that The Avengers: Age of Ultron would be building up to a Planet Hulktype movie, and now there’s more gas on that fire as current Hulk Mark Ruffalo has recently suggested Marvel is now open to a third Hulk stand-alone adventure.

Ruffalo told Digital Spy “I think they are, for the first time, entertaining the idea of it. When we did The Avengers it was basically ‘No!’, and now there is some consideration for it.” He then notes that it’s not fully fleshed out to his knowledge, and there is no script at the moment. Though he’s only suggesting it’s a possibility, we know Marvel is starting to think about outer space as a new field to play in as Guardians of the Galaxy takes place in worlds beyond, and going galactic is something they hinted at in the first Avengers film, so we wouldn’t be surprised if they do go full Planet Hulk.

The biggest obstacle is that the character has been a loser when he’s tasked with a solo adventure. Previously Ang Lee and Louis Leterrier brought the big green guy — as played by Eric Bana and Edward Norton — to the big screen, and both ended up being box office disappointments. But both were also origin stories, and if the latest big screen adventure builds on Hulk’s Avengersadventures, it could be a different story. But there’s still that concern the character is better as a side dish than a meal. We shall see.

Criterion is really cranking them out this week, while two of the best films of the year also hit Blu-ray this week, along with one of Netflix’s most buzzed-about shows. Not a bad haul.

New:

The Grand Budapest Hotel: Wes Anderson’s latest film is a triumph that uses its huge cast and multiple aspect ratios to tell the story of the world’s great concierge and his protégé. Anderson is in top form here, and this may very well be his best film yet. We’re curious to see how the set handles the aspect ratios, so it’s a must-have.

House of Cards: The Complete Second Season: Kevin Spacey has found a meaty role in Frank Underhill, and he chews the living heck out of it in the second season. Now making his way into the vice presidency, Frank angles for the highest position in the land as his machinations play out.

The LEGO Movie: Hot on the heels of the release of 22 Jump Street, Phil Lord and Chris Miller are now four for four as directors, and are going to have two hit movies this year. The LEGO Movie is the ultimate high concept movie that shouldn’t work, and yet, it’s one of the best films of the year, and is hilarious to boot.

Joe: David Gordon Green and Nicolas Cage redeemed some of their lesser works with this smallish character study. It’s good to have Cage back in a movie that is both challenging and watchable.

Walk of Shame: Elizabeth Banks is a national treasure, but this film – which was released day and date – doesn’t look promising, nor does its rushed presence on home video.

Classics:

Hearts and Minds, Judex, Picnic at Hanging Rock: This Criterion triple threat is a film lover’s delight.

]]>http://screencrave.com/2014-06-17/dvd-bluray-picks-june-17-23/feed/0Damon Houx's Top 100 Films of All Time (Part 1 of 2)http://screencrave.com/2014-06-17/damon-houxs-top-100-films-time-part-1-2/
http://screencrave.com/2014-06-17/damon-houxs-top-100-films-time-part-1-2/#commentsTue, 17 Jun 2014 08:05:36 +0000Damon Houxhttp://screencrave.com/?p=187554Writing lists, the actual act of ranking films, is absurd. For most of us who aren’t OCD, there’s really no way to rank one film above another. Sure, there are the aesthetic and technical merits, but any list is going to be essentially about preference, one that can change in a moment’s notice. Spoilers, both Jaws and Vertigo make my hundred, but who’s to say which is better? Both are hugely influential, both have great performances, etc. So which outranks the other? Today one, tomorrow another.

But why am I writing this list? Well, for one I’ve seen thousands of movies at this point, and it’s worth sharing the gold. And it pains me to leave many off the list. But it all depends on why you read lists. If you want my taste to rank up with yours, you’re pretty much screwed. No, more than anything (besides establishing a canon), this list is meant to be a resource for people who like movies, and want hot tips. But also there’s another reason, to be revealed later.

And also, in this summer of a steady string of disappointment it’s worth focusing on why I love movies, and why I love writing about them. I don’t go to films like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 or Godzilla expecting dross (even if that’s what I got), but because I love the cinema I hope to be wowed. But I also don’t think it’s worth lowering my standards to appreciate something that was obviously not (narratively) crafted to be a great film.

I believe in this list, but I should offer some disclaimers first

The list is more of a top 90: The bottom ten are all meant to be fun pictures, films that I love unequivocally, but really have no place amongst the greatest films of all time, still, they are some of the greatest films of all time for certain moods.

What I’ve discounted: Look, for some you’re going to be annoyed that I didn’t include more (or any) Superhero films, few films from the last ten years, and any animated or short films. With the latter two it just struck me that it’s not fair – though if I had to pick a best animated film, it’s a toss up between Bambi and Spirited Away, and Jean Renoir’s A Day in the Country would be my pick for the best short. For the most part I’m not including that many modern pictures, because they have not stood the test of time. I wish I had room for Galaxy Quest on my list, I really do, but that’s easily one of the best films of 1999. But if you look at lists from that year, it was less likely to place as films like Boys Don’t Cry and American Beauty, which have not stood the test of time as well. Of course some films are of their moment, and if you live through that moment those films have a greater value for that. Alas.
At the end of the day, it’s a mixture of great and Great: It pains me that this list doesn’t include any Mizoguchi or Ozu. Tokyo Story is a brilliant film, of that there is no question, but list-making is intensely political, and I would rather have certain films on here because this is my list. But there are a number of all timers I didn’t include because they don’t speak to me as strongly as others. Were I to write this list in five years, I might revisit some of these films and find that I wouldn’t put them on here, and perhaps age will make me appreciate Ozu’s masterpiece more. But eventually you run out of space, and as a Westerner, I’m more likely to fall in love with an Akira Kurosawa film.

100. Knock Off

99. Shaun of the Dead

Edgar Wright’s filmmaking debut is one of those films I showed to everyone I knew, and will show it to people who haven’t seen it at the drop of a hat. It’s just that much fun and well constructed. =

98. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

Conquest is as close as we’ve come to someone adapting the story of Nat Turner to the big screen, and when the monkeys conquer (what amounts to) Century City, it’s one of the most thrilling scenes in cinema – something amplified by the film’s original ending, which is now on the Blu-ray.

97. The Driver

Walter Hill understands that action defines character, and here that is made abundantly clear. One of the great car movies.

96. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Temple of Doom is just a funhouse ride. Spielberg delights himself by throwing the kitchen sink into the movie, and it’s for the twelve year old boy in my heart.

95. Cemetery Man

Part horror movie, mostly existential comedy, but visually this film is off the rails, as if director Michele Soavi enjoyed interpreting a comic book movie like none other.

94. Velvet Goldmine

If I had to pick my desert island films, this tribute to glam rock would definitely make the cut. On top of it being the most eloquent commentary on how the gay revolution in the sixties and seventies was partially silenced by the back to the future aspects of the eighties.

93 Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan

I’m not the world’s biggest Star Trekfan, but there’s no denying that this is a perfect movie, and playful in its construction.

92 Top Secret!

Pound for pound the goofiest and most silly movie ever made. The closest thing someone’s come to capture the manic energy of Duck Soup.

91 Certified Copy

It’s hard for me to place a film from the last five years on a best of list, but if I had to pick one film since 2009, it would easily be this film.

90 Ball of Fire

Howard Hawks is the greatest Hollywood director, and though this is a formula film, watching Hawks dot the i’s and cross the t’s has been one of my greatest pleasures. I can revisit this film at the drop of a hat.

89 The Straight Story

David Lynch has made many great films, but the purity of The Straight Story, and how he’s able to channel himself into a G rated Disney movie is one of the great examples of an auteur at work.

88 Brokeback Mountain

Ang Lee’s love story between cowboys will hopefully come to show how far we as a society have come. If you watch this film and don’t feel for its star-crossed lovers, you may be a terrible person.

87 Bottle Rocket

If I have to pick one Wes Anderson film, I’ll pick this one, only because it’s the one that has so few mannerism, but also is a pure but most easily palatable version of so many of his films. Dignan is sui generis. But then also, The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom or The Grand Budapest Hotel could be swapped for this spot.

86 Seven Men from Now

Budd Boeticher made a lot of westerns, many with Randolph Scott. Though the Ranown cycle of films he made with Scott are all great films worth checking out, Seven Men features Lee Marvin at his absolute best. And also, the economy is something to be studied. No wasted moments or gestures.

85 Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Horror is the most subjective genre in cinema, but Tobe Hooper’s 1974 stalk and kill film makes you believe that it’s either a documentary or made by a madman or possibly both. And as a Northerner, it plays on my fears of taking the wrong road in a bad location.

84 Wages of Fear/Sorcerer

Let me cheat this one time. Both films are excellent, but as a double bill you can see how two master directors take on the same material, while also imbuing both with their own different but similar sense of fatalism. Essential.

83 Memories of Murder

The serial killer genre has twisted and turned throughout its history – though has become the province of television of late – but Bong Joon-ho’s take on a series of murders in Korea is a profound work that shows a director who understands how to manipulate tone better than anyone working today.

82. The Roaring Twenties

If I am to pick one Raoul Walsh film (it was between this and White Heat), I’ll go with this one as it does (as Martin Scorsese pointed out) show how genre material can transcend its stockness.

81 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The richest of meals, Andrew Dominik’s film is everything at once: a commentary on our fascination with anti-heroes, and a treatise on celebrity culture and on sycophants. Both Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck give all time performances in this film.

80 The Thing

And if I have to pick one John Carpenter (which is really f-ing hard), it’s the one that – unlike most horror films – has imagery that still causes me to shudder in its awesome grotesqueness. Most movies scare you by using your imagination against you. This shows you things that seem unimaginable, and as it was done pre-CGI, it’s impossible to deny.

79 Animal House

The preeminent slobs versus slobs movie still holds up because it’s about a bunch of pigs who were righteously stupid. Also, it’s hilarious.

78 The Insider

As is the case with much of this list, I’m picking one film by a great director, and if I have to pick one Mann, it’s his portrait of a man pushed to the limit, simply for telling the truth. It’s easy to say “not since The Passion of Joan of Arc,” but in this case….

77 Stop Making Sense

The greatest rock musical of all time. Say what you will about The Last Waltz, but I’m team Stop Making Sense because it’s infectious.

76 Dawn of the Dead

Horror works best when it explores a metaphor, and no one explored the problems in America better than George Romero. Though all of the first three in his zombie cycle are masterpieces, the pop art sensibilities of Dawn make it one of the great films of the seventies (and of all time).

75 Once Upon a Time in the West

74 Pickpocket

The most accessible of Robert Bresson’s amazing roster of cinema, here he was inspired by Samuel Fuller, and tried to understand the art of the steal, while also staying true to his sensibilities. It’s hard to think of Bresson making a commercial film, but this is it, and by doing so, he made a masterpiece. But, again, the body of work is all worthwhile.

73 Footlight Parade

Though James Cagney was often cast as a tough guy (and he did it as well as anyone), the man was a dancer, and this is the best of the Busby Berkley films in terms of structure, and it could have some of his best dancer numbers. It’s a hoot.

72 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger created some of the greatest movies of all time, but this film is rare in that it’s about the passage of time, and about how people grow out of fashion and stuck in their ways. It’s a perfect movie, as are all the rest of the films on this list.

71 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Though there’s an argument to be made that John Ford made better films (My Darling Clementine, Three Godfathers, The Searchers), this comes homes strongest for me, because it suggests so much of America was built on fiction.

70 North by Northwest

Alfred Hitchcock directed many great films, but this is the smoothest ride of them all. It’s just pure pleasure from the first sound of Bernard Herrmann’s score to the final shot that symbolizes the main characters are having sex.

69 No Country For Old Men

2007 produced a number of masterpieces, but The Coen Brothers portrait of unstoppable and mercurial evil is one of their great works, and was a great yelp in the midst of a pointless war and a country that seemed to lose its way.

68 The Naked Spur

Jimmy Stewart gives a top three performance in this Anthony Mann western (the two worked together a lot and all their films are worth a perusal). Here Stewart is a desperate man who’s on the verge of losing his soul by going on a bounty hunt. Also, Robert Ryan is amazing in the film .

67 Ace in the Hole

If I am to pick one Billy Wilder film, I flipped a coin and it was between this portrait of how journalism can prove self-serving when a story becomes bigger than the truth, and The Apartment. I’m sorry, The Apartment.

66 Modern Romance

Stanley Kubrick once told Albert Brooks that his Modern Romance was a perfect movie and that it said everything about relationships he ever wanted to express on film. Who’s to argue with Kubrick?

65 The Band Wagon

The elegance of Fred Astaire mixed with the gams of Cyd Charisse and the assured direction of Vincente Minnelli led to one of the great cappers to the song and dance genre. Astaire and Charisse were never better, and the film is a pip.

64 Scenes From a Marriage

If I am to pick one Ingmar Bergman, I’ll go with the one that speaks to me most. As a movie, it shows a marriage crumble and how the pieces can sometimes come back together (even for a moment) while the television version goes more in depth, but either way it’s my favorite of his work.

63 The Killer

John Woo revolutionized action with this film, as he combined the kinetic editing of Sam Peckinpah with the fluidity of Vincente Minnelli’s musical numbers, and a Catholic’s guilt. The results make for one of the greatest action movies of all time.

62 Shoot the Piano Player

Francois Truffaut made so many great films (watch the Antoine Donnell series as well) but his playful early effort Shoot the Piano Playertickles the structuralist in me as he toys with genre as well as Quentin Tarantino.

61 Orpheus

Jean Cocteau made many great films, but the poetry of this film, which uses all the tricks in cinema for this modern retelling of a myth seems like everything the director ever wanted or hoped to say with a camera.

60 Used Cars

I love the prankish spirit of early Robert Zemeckis, and his clockwork precision as a writer. Though there’s no denying that Back to the Futureis immaculately constructed, not only is Used Carsequally perfect, it’s a more pointed satire of America. And that’s what Zemeckis did well… at least, he used to.

59 All That Jazz

Bob Fosse’s autobiographical musical is possibly the last great musical, plus also about something.

58 Goodfellas

If I have to single out one detail that makes this a masterwork, it’s the shot of the car sighing with relief when the fat gangster gets out. Gripping from frame one until the credits roll.

57 Sherlock Jr.

If I am to pick one Buster Keaton, it’s the one that plays with formula like a genius. It must have seemed like a revolution at the time, and it’s still perfection.

56 Scarlet Street

If I am to pick one Lang to make the list, it’s shocking that I think his version of the Jean Renoir film is better than the original, but my god is this one of the bleakest and best film noirs.

55 The Leopard

Luchino Visconti’s mastery has few parallels, but this film, which celebrates the end of an era and how change is inevitable, but also how the past had its pleasures (for those who could afford it), is simply breathtaking cinema.

54 There Will Be Blood

There are few performances as pure and true as Daniel Day-Lewis in TWBB. Paul Thomas Anderson uses everything he knew to create this piece, which is one of the great American pictures. If he was trying to make a new version of The Treasure of Sierra Madre, he surpassed it.

53 Naked

Speaking of great performances, David Thewlis in Naked is one for the ages. It’s a character so complete, so complex and so terrible that it is singular in cinema.

52 High And Low

Akira Kursosawa (who will chart higher, I promise), was a master of genre, and this twisty-turny kidnapping procedure proves itself profound in the final stretch.

51 The Empire Strikes Back

Perhaps my only paean to fanboys on this list outside of the bottom ten, let’s make no mistake. This deepens, and twists George Lucas’ original, while also taking the original’s workmanlike visual sense and turns it beautiful. The shots of the door closes as Leia looks on is cinema.

50 Night of the Hunter

Charles Laughton directed one movie, but it’s great to bat 1.00, isn’t it? Drawing from silent cinema (made explicit with the casting of Lillian Gish) everyone is amazing in the film, with Robert Mitchum in top form (which is saying something).

Frank Grillo is an up and comer who is going to get that shot — that shot few actors get these days — at real stardom. Grillo will not only lead the upcoming sequel to The Purge, The Purge: Anarchy, he’s going to star in the American remake of The Raid.

That’s the word from We Got This Covered, who broke that Grillo signed on for the title, which will be directed by Patrick Hughes (who is currently putting the finishing touches on The Expendables 3), and is based on the bone-crunching film by Gareth Evans that was retitled The Raid: Redemptionstateside, and just had a sequel in The Raid: Berandal.

Grillo has had a number of showy roles in recent films like The Grey, and he could be a part of a big superhero franchise as he played Brock Rumlow/Crossbones in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though that all depends on what directions they take the third film (Billy Dee Williams played Harvey Dent in the first Tim BurtonBatman movie, but never got a chance at Two Face). By taking the lead in an action movie, it could lead to bigger and better things for him, or it could lead to a bunch of Jason Statham-type vehicles that barely manage to play theaters. It could go either way. We’d expect to see The Raidremake sometime next year.